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Wormsloe expands emphasis on research

A groundbreaking Monday for the University of Georgia Center for Research and Education at Wormsloe Plantation signaled the expanding focus on research at this iconic Savannah site.

Wormsloe is a “living environmental laboratory” as well as a repository of history, said Daniel Nadenicek, dean of the UGA College of Environment and Design.

“The inherent beauty of this small campus will inspire innovation and promote new research and teaching partnerships,” he said.

About 15.5 acres of Wormsloe became part of UGA in April when the University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted to accept the parcel as a gift from the trustees of the Wormsloe Foundation.

The property will be used for interdisciplinary research by faculty and graduate students in fields including landscape architecture, historic preservation, environmental planning, ecology, archaeology, and geology. The donated parcel contains both high ground and marsh and includes a former slave cabin constructed in the 1740s.

The board of regents has earmarked $300,000 for the first of five new buildings planned for the site. When fully developed, they’ll house up to 20 research fellows at a time, provide lab and administrative space and include a 40-person classroom.

Located on the Isle of Hope, Wormsloe Plantation dates to the 1730s. The property has served as a military stronghold, plantation, country residence, farm and tourist attraction. Much of the original plantation became a state historic site in 1973 and continues to operate in collaboration with UGA and the foundation.

“The Wormsloe Foundation has a long history of support for the University of Georgia,” said Sarah Ross, president of the Wormsloe Foundation and Wormsloe Institute for Environmental History. “We are pleased that this renowned property will advance the university’s long-term research and education goals by providing a historic landscape for faculty and graduate students to live and work.”

UGA’s plans for research and education at the site further the vision of Craig Barrow, a descendent of Noble Jones, the 18th century settler of Wormsloe.

“Wormsloe is a candidate for becoming a World Heritage Site,” he said. “If you own a piece of property and you’re the ninth generation, you have stewardship responsibilities to the people who came before you.

“To have a partner like the Georgia DNR and now UGA will ensure Wormsloe will be available for the citizens of Georgia and will preserve it. That’s what we want.”

Wormsloe is the oldest property in Georgia, and perhaps the Southeast, to be held continuously by the same family. Barrow and his wife, Diana, continue to live on the site.

At the groundbreaking Monday, UGA President Jere Morehead thanked Barrow, calling the new Wormsloe effort “something truly extraordinary in terms of the research and the service and the outreach that will take place here for generations to come.”

Alyssa Gehman is one of the current Wormsloe fellows. A doctoral student, she researches a mud crab and the eyebrow-raising behavior of a parasitic barnacle that attacks it. In her words, the parasite “snatches the host’s body, castrates it and uses it as a parasite producing machine.”

Other researchers displayed posters of their work Monday ranging from evaluating the landsacape for evidence of rice growth to the impacts of butterfly gardens on migration and disease.

“Wormsloe provides us with unique opportunities and resources to work together,” Gehman said. “The magic comes in this combination of a richly historic landscape with a preserved landscape.”

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP BUTLER, Okinawa, Japan — Marine Corps Captain James E. Frederick, who ejected from a Marine F/A-18 on Dec. 7, was pronounced dead after his body was found during search and rescue operations.